Any parking system consists of the following main features: (a) authorization—a method of seeking permission to park by the user and by the Parking Authority to grant authorization; (b) payment—a method of collecting payment from the user; (c) validation—a method of checking whether the authorized time has run out or the vehicle was never authorized; (d) enforcement—a method used by the parking authority for penalizing vehicles that have not paid or have overstayed their authorized time. The term, “targeted enforcement” refers to enforcement that is selectively targeted at a subset of the general population of vehicles.
These requirements are fundamental—they are present in legacy systems and continue to be requirements for new systems. Modern systems and methods are using wireless technologies to improve consumer experience and reduce the cost of providing service while still meeting the above requirements. Some examples of prior art methods are described below.
Open, Roadside, Coin Operated Parking Meters
A mechanical device, known as a parking meter, is permanently mounted on the sidewalk and associated with a particular marked parking space on the street. The user (person wishing to occupy a parking space) inserts coins of denominations usually specified on the parking meter into a slot in the meter. The total value of the coins inserted corresponds to an authorized parking duration, which is displayed by the meter. As time elapses, a clockwork mechanism in the meter reduces the authorized time until the latter is completely exhausted. Thereupon, a prominent sign (often a red flag) that the authorized time has expired is displayed. If a vehicle is parked in a spot where the meter has run out, it is liable to be penalized by the parking authority, often by being given a paper ticket. Human collectors periodically collect the coins deposited in the meters.
Gated Parking Lots (Closed Garages)
In such systems, a variety of means are used to determine when a vehicle entered and exited the lot. These may include the user getting a paper ticket with the entry time numerically stamped or bar-coded on to the ticket. The parking fee may be a flat fee or dependent on the time a vehicle spends in the parking lot. The method of payment may be by cash or credit card and may involve a human operating the exit gate and manually validating the paper ticket. Alternatively, the user may pay by credit card at a payment kiosk, which stamps an “authorization to exit” on the parking ticket, which is valid for a time period that is sufficient to allow the user to exit. The user may exit by presenting the ticket at a gate operated by an automated ticket reader or a human operator.
There are also prior art, gated parking lots where the user is required to swipe a credit card or a special identification (ID) token issued by the garage at the point of entry (before entry is allowed). The garage is equipped with a computer that identifies the vehicle by the credit card or the identification token and keeps track of elapsed time until the vehicle exits the garage, at which point, the user swipes the credit card or ID token a second time. The second swiping causes the garage computer to calculate the vehicle's stay duration and accordingly charges the credit card or some other pre-arranged payment system.
Open-Access Parking Lots with Payment Kiosks
More recently, owing to the difficulty of maintenance and payment collection, coin operated parking meters are being replaced with multi-space payment kiosks. A kiosk may serve a large number of open-access (i.e. non-gated) numbered or un-numbered parking spaces. The user parks his vehicle in an available space, enters his space-number (if the parking spaces are numbered) on the operating console of the kiosk and requests to occupy the specified space for a specified time period. The kiosk issues a paper ticket, or token, containing the space-number and the authorized time, sometimes by specifying the time of day when the token expires. If the parking spaces are un-numbered, the ticket does not contain a space-number field. The user is required to display the ticket prominently so that parking authority agents may inspect vehicles for enforcement.
Payment by Wireless
In the past several years, a number of wireless payment systems have been introduced to replace the coin operated meter and the payment kiosks described in the previous sections. In most cases, a cellphone, or Handset, is involved and the systems are generally referred to as, “pay by cell.” This has been facilitated by the fact that modern cellphones (Handsets) can engage in payment transactions with a remote server either via commonly available cellular data services or through automated voice activated systems. The Verrus system is an example of prior art use of wireless means for parking authorization and payment.
In the Verrus system, the user's credentials, such as mobile phone number, vehicle license plate number, credit card number and other information are required to be pre-registered with Verrus. Once registered, the user can park his vehicle in parking lots with which Verrus has established a business arrangement to allow its method of remote payment. The following are prominently displayed in the lot: (a) the fact that this is a Verrus authorized parking lot and (b) a parking lot ID number. The user sends an SMS or makes a phone call to communicate the parking lot ID and her requested parking duration. Parking authority agents (Checkers) can verify the authorization status of parked vehicles by accessing the Verrus server, which is remotely accessible to the Checker.
Other similar systems have also been deployed in many major cities. For example, a cashless parking system has been developed by Parkmobile and deployed in several states in the United States. As in the Verrus system, the user has a prearranged payment agreement with Parkmobile, which is the Parking Service Provider. In order to initiate a parking session, the user has to communicate a Parking Zone ID to a Parkmobile server via his mobile phone. This communication can occur by calling a phone number or entering data on the user's mobile phone as part of executing a downloaded mobile application. The method of enforcement is based on a Checker determining the compliance status of each individual vehicle (with respect to the duration of stay and the paid parking fee) using a handheld Checking Terminal to access the Parking Application Server.
Although remote wireless payment systems and methods in support of parking applications are burgeoning in the prior art, these systems currently offer suboptimal user and Checker experiences. Some examples are provided below.
In the prior art systems, requesting parking authorization requires the user to perform one or more of the following operations: (a) make a phone call and verbally communicate various information, including the Parking Zone ID; (b) manually send an SMS with the above information; (c) find and read the zone ID applicable to given parking spot, launch an application on a smart phone and enter data in response to a query from the application. Performing these operations while parked on a busy and noisy street is inconvenient and potentially risky.
Both user and Checker experiences are significantly improved in the present invention. The Checker's job has actually been made more difficult in some prior art wireless parking payment systems. For example, in the Parkmobile system, vehicle's belonging to Parkmobile customers are parked beside other vehicles with no features distinguishing the Parkmobile vehicles. A vehicle of the latter type may be parked in front of a legacy coin meter with an indication of expired session (e.g. a red flag). For every vehicle so parked, the Checker has to first ascertain if it is a Parkmobile vehicle before he can issue a fine (ticket). This ascertaining may be performed by the Checker manually entering the license plate number of the vehicle on to a handheld Checking Terminal connected wirelessly to a Parkmobile server and the server responding with a message stating whether the vehicle is a Parkmobile customer's vehicle with an expired session. The task may be slightly lightened by the license plate being scanned and uploaded to the server electronically. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that, even if a single Parkmobile vehicle is present among ten other vehicles which are not Parkmobile vehicles, the Checker has to perform the above process for each one of the eleven vehicles. Before the Parkmobile system was introduced, the Checker could issue tickets purely based on the indicated status of the coin meter.
It is further noteworthy that, as present pay by cell systems do not indicate the parked locations of their vehicles with a spatial resolution better than a city block (a city block is the range typically covered by a Zone ID in the Parkmobile system and Zone ID is the highest resolution of vehicle location information available in that system), the Checker has to do a considerable amount of “hunting” to find the approximate locations of vehicles participating in these systems. As explained above, when these vehicles are intermingled with legacy vehicles (not participating in the pay by cell system), it greatly increases the workload of the Checker.